Styx

Three guys in movie heaven: Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington

Three guys in hell: Richard Grieco, Michael Paré, Eric Roberts

In between, we have three guys in limbo: Peter Weller, Bryan Brown, Angus McFadyen

All three of the limbo guys are in this movie, which appears to have been made as a straight-to-vid. Limbo is not a good place to be, because the trend is downward to hell, not upward to heaven. A couple of years ago, Michael Madsen, Malcolm McDowell, and Dennis Hopper were in limbo, making some b movies to supplement their roles in majors. Now they seem to be permanently in hell, consistently paired with Paré and the B boys.

It seems to be almost impossible to escape from hell. Eric Roberts has turned in some pretty good performances down there in Hades, even an excellent one in La Cucaracha, but I don't think there is a road back to real movies. If there is, it's difficult to find. It's like getting back to the majors after being sent down to the rookie league.

NUDITY REPORT

Chantelle Standler is seen naked from behind while she showers

Nan Hamilton does a brief scene of full-frontal nudity.

male: Warrick Grier is naked, full-frontal in the scene with Nan Hamilton

MacFadyen was in real movies a very short time ago, but his presence in this cast is not a positive omen for his personal future.

Given all that, I guess it it fitting that the movie is named Styx, because the River Styx is the passageway to Hell.

It's one of those films where a bunch of low-rent guys who don't trust each other try to pull off a massive caper. As is inevitable in these films, each of them is upset that the others don't show him enough "respect". They need the expertise of one guy (Weller) who has left the rackets to become an honest restaurant owner, so he joins in for the ever-cliched "one last job". They all double-cross each other and fire off thousands of rounds and have a lot of car chases. Round up the usual plot twists.

DVD info from Amazon.

bare-bones, no widescreen

The fight scenes between geezers Bryan Brown and Peter Weller looked like the battle for a front seat when Matlock comes on at the old folks' home.

The end.

It is a perfect movie to be starring "limbo guys". Not bad enough to be a Grieco classic. Not good enough to be "Lock, Stock ... "

The Critics Vote

no reviews online

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary. Not enough votes, but will probably check in around 5.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-. Watchable, but routine straight-to-vid caper/doublecross film.